So near, and yet so far. The new Mac mini comes within a whisker of being the ultimate home media centre.
It's tiny, so it fits perfectly into that shelf underneath your TV. It's attractive, so no one will complain about having it on public display. It boasts some superb functionality, thanks to the new version of Front Row. There's just one problem. It doesn't have a television tuner.
You can connect the mini to a TV if you buy an S-Video/ Composite adaptor, but that's not really enough.
Before we're accused of unnecessary moaning, we should point out that you can add TV recording through an external device, such as Elgato's EyeTV. Not only will this let you watch shows on your Mac, but it will also give you the ability to pause and rewind live footage, plus record anything you're particularly keen on. You probably won't fancy splashing out extra on peripheral devices, though, considering that both versions of the mini are now £100 more expensive.
Lack of programmes
Still, it's not all doom and gloom. The Mac mini's design has been improved in other areas. Firstly there are now four USB ports on the back, plus a new digital/ audio line in. It also now comes with an Apple Remote and coupled with the brand new Front Row 1.2.1, that makes it a darn good media server, with the capability to share media files backwards and forwards with other Macs on the network.
We discuss this feature at length in the MacBook Pro review on page 80, so we won't repeat ourselves here. Don't think we're underestimating its importance; it potentially means more to the mini than it does to any other Mac.
As you'd expect with any of the Intel-based releases, this new model is also much faster than its predecessor. It's still not the most powerful beast in the jungle, but if you're after raw muscle, you really shouldn't be buying such a small system. The 1.66GHz Core Duo fitted inside this £599 machine, and even the 1.5GHz Core Solo in the £449 version, are far better processors than the previous PowerPC G4.
That's not the only upgrade; the memory is twice as fast as before (now 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM), and a S-ATA hard drive will also speed things along.
